Colorado cannabis power couple says the NFL doesn’t have a choice, has to embrace the use of marijuana

By MICHAEL O’KEEFFE

|NEW YORK DAILY NEWS|

Aug 09, 2016 | 12:35 PM

Wanda James and Scott Durrah are the first African Americans to open a dispensary in Colorado. (Howard Simmons/New York Daily News)

DENVER - He is an award-winning chef who has prepared injury-healing meals for NFL and NBA stars such as Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Von Miller. He is a cannabis connoisseur who teaches people how to prepare nutritious food with marijuana.

She is a former corporate executive who served on President Obama's National Finance Committee in 2008 and now runs a marijuana dispensary. She is a passionate political activist who wants to spread the word on the medical and social benefits of pot.

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Meet Wanda James and Scott Durrah, the Colorado cannabis power couple who predict it won't be long before the NFL embraces marijuana as a brain medicine and as an alternative to dangerous and addictive painkillers. Marijuana reform is sweeping across America, they say, and it won't be long before cannabis completes its journey from outlaw weed to mainstream product.

"The NFL does not have a choice," James says. "They can say what they want but the battle is over. It is time for a change."

James and Durrah, Colorado's first African-American dispensary owners, operate Simply Pure, a dispensary in Denver's trendy Highlands neighborhood that sells marijuana strains with names such as Mob Boss and Smurfette, pot-infused pretzels, chocolate bars and other edibles. There are also tinctures and lotions, including a cannabis and coconut sex lotion called Foria Sensual Enhancement Oil.

Jezebel's Southern Bistro, their restaurant famous along the Front Range for its catfish, fried chicken and gumbo, is a block away. It may be the only restaurant in America that offers its staff a drink or a joint at the end of their shift.

Half the states, including New York, have already legalized marijuana for medical or recreational purposes, and James believes it won't be long before the United States government reclassifies marijuana, which is currently a Schedule I drug the feds say has no medicinal purpose. Voters in California, Massachusetts and three other states will vote on proposals to legalize recreational marijuana this fall, while four other states, including Florida, will vote on medical marijuana measures.

There's already a lot of money invested in the marijuana industry, especially in Colorado and other states that have decriminalized recrecreational weed, James says, and when the reclassification happens, money for research and investment in businesses will come pouring in.

"Marijuana has created jobs, not just in dispensaries, but for designers, lawyers, marketing people," says James, who is also the founder of Cannabis Global Initiative, a lobbying organization that helps business navigate marijuana laws and regulations. "Everybody in Colorado knows somebody in the industry."

Cannabis is not an ingredient in the meals Durrah prepared for Anthony and other athletes, but restaurateur has prepared cannabis meals for hospice patients and people suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis, concussions and other ailments. Cannabis has healing properties, he says.

"I have seen what it can do," Durrah says. "The number one concern in the NFL right now is pain, whether it is from concussions or joint injuries. Look at the number of players who have gotten hooked on painkillers simply because they want to hold on to their jobs. Pot is a great alternative."

Wanda James says the NFL doesn't have a choice, the league has to embrace pot use. (Howard Simmons/New York Daily News)

Durrah says his football sources tell him marijuana is widely used by NFL players. "They know it is better than the pharmaceutical drugs being passed around in locker rooms. What would the NFL do if 25 of its top 50 players came out and said they used marijuana? Would they suspend them? If they did that, nobody would watch."

Durrah, a former Marine, and James, who served in the Navy, say they have to be politically engaged because too many lives - particularly those of minority kids - have been disrupted and even permanently damaged by the war on drugs. Legalizing marijuana will help the United States take a giant step forward to social justice.

James says her brother spent more than four years in a Texas prison for marijuana possession - a stark contrast from her days at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where students openly smoked dope on campus with little repercussions from campus police.

"It is time to get real about cannabis," she says. "Colorado has already done that. You can't talk about racism in America without talking about the war on drugs. It is time for a change."